>> look me in the eye and tell me we did not live this pain. how you can be in the front of the church and tell them you categorically deny it, you can't say this to our face. you are not a man. you are a monster. >> reporter: longaltarian responded with a statement, here it is, unfortunately the plaintiffs in counsel are attempting to try their lawsuits in the media. the appropriate place is in the courtroom. there are rules oun civil cases are done. goodness, look what the network dragged in. ali velshi. >> t.j., i have such fun watching you do the show, i don't feel like coming back some days. t.j. holmes have a fantastic afternoon. i'm ali velshi here with you the next two hours today and every weekday guiding through through the maze of information coming your together together we'll learn what's going on around the

world and at home. those who can explain what it means today and the impact beyond today. my mission is to help you figure out how what's going on around the world fits into your life. let's get started right now. here's what i've got on the rundown. for six months now a personal internet campaign waged against a young man. openly gay student body president of the university of michigan. what is really surprising here is the person who's waging it. a top state official who helps enforce laws. plus, a sign of how bad the recent recession was. among the biggest cities in the united states, only one saw a rise in median income. only one. what was that city doing right? we'll find out. and the way you browse the web could you changing dramatically. instead of looking down at your smartphone, you might be looking through. first, a major terror plot uncovered in europe triggering concern around the world. a german counter-terrorist official tells the u.s. to focus -- economic targets like

banks and stock exchanges. at the same time, developments on the battlefields in afghanistan and pakistan that are linked to the plot, apparently. here are key points. authorities say a german citizen of afghan descent is in custody spelling out the terror plan, like the terror plot in mumbai that killed 164 people two years ago. osama bin laden apparently approved the plan. no word so far if threats were also made against the united states. now, to the war zone in afghanistan and pakistan. nato says an air strike killed a top al qaeda commander in northern afghanistan along its border with pakistan. the u.s. recently increased the number of drone attacks in pakistan, and this may be due in part to information on the terror plot. drone targets in pakistan include taliban and al qaeda forces and militants linked to al qaeda. and the taliban denied claims made by the top u.s. commander in afghanistan, general david petraeus, that the taliban wants, was in contact with

afghan government officials about possible peace talks. there's a lot going on, and we've got the story covered on all fronts. ivan watson in kabul, afghanistan. fred plankton in islamabad, pakistan kninic robertson and i tell us what you know about this first. >> reporter: well, an air strike that took place on saturday according to u.s. and nato spokesmen. usually we're hearing about raids that tart taliban commanders, taliban operatives. this time identifying two arab al qaeda operatives. one by the name of abdullah omar karashi a saudi bringing foreign fighters into afghanistan, ard coulding to a spokesman and abu atta al kuwaiti, a kuwaiti explosives expert. this took place in kunar province near the border with pakistan, in a bloody corner

called the corner valley, an area u.s. forces recently evacuated after spending five years fighting there and losing at least 40 american lives. and sad piece of news. a nato isap soldiers killed by a roadside bomb in southern afghanistan today. a bloody year in afghanistan. ali? >> stay with us. going to fred, an interest in drone attacks inside pakistan. tell us the significance of this. why is that happening and what's different about what's happening? >> reporter: well, one of the reasons, ali, what's happening, because there's so much cross-border transition between taliban and al qaeda from pakistan into afghanistan. of course, a lot of taliban and al qaeda leaders are using pakistan as a safe haven especially the north waziristan area. the u.s. has been telling the pakistani army to go in there and clean that place up a long

time's in some places the pakistani army has. in others it hasn't. now saying their army is too far stretched and with the flooding going on here in pakistan they can't launch more operations. it so, the u.s. for its part is stepping up drone attacks to keep the pressure on al qaeda and taliban and try and prevent the fighters from getting into afghanistan and threatening american soldiers. ali? >> fred, stay there as well. nic robertson joins us now. nic, this terror plot uncovered in europe. tell us what we know about this, how it unfolded and where we stand with that investigation. >> reporter: we know that an afghan german wliving in hamburg moved to the tribal border region of afghan, and pakistan, joined a camp in 2009. plans being laid there for this multiple mumbai-style attack. an attack where you have coordinated attacks on different hotels or place where is a lot of people, or soft targets, with

men, ten men in the mumbai attack using automatic weapons and small explosives, hand gra natds and the like. and this plot not only coordinated around a couple of hotels in one city but planned for britain for france and planned for germany. officials say that they've interrupted this as such a stage that it had not got beyond pakistan. it was still being planned and none of these potential attackers had come back to europe. all information that this german afghan provided. ahmed sidiqi arrested in kabul in july of this year, ali. >> thanks. paul crook schank, in london. when we hear about this, these two things have a connection. when we hear about the top al qaeda commanders or even lieutenants who are captured or killed, mostly killed these days what does this do to the structure of al qaeda? i mean, there are obviously great resources an strategy that

go into killing or captures these guys. does it create a hole in the al qaeda structure? are they able to fill that or is al qaeda operating at cells independently around the world? >> reporter: it does hurt al qaeda when they take out top leaders, especially when they're very experienced. they're difficult to replace. al qaeda is being very resilient, decentralized their operations there. fighters live in smaller groups. they train in smaller groups, they live in shacks up in the mountains. they've been annal to survive this onslaught and survivors we've seen plotting new attacks against the west. we just saw the plot in new york in september last year to bomb new york subway. al qaeda is still there, still in business, and that area, not just yemen and somalia causing counterterrorist officials a lot of concern, ali. let me ask you, nic. attention focused in the trike

area in pakistan, in the border with afghanistan for so long. if those areas were to one day be secured, is that enough of a hit to al qaeda that they really can't operate as effectively? >> reporter: it will be in the short term when you take out those camps, but let's look at the bigger picture here. you've got al qaeda operating out of yemen. they've got a franchise there. that was the franchise that sent the bomber abdul, christmas day on that flight to detroit. you've got the al qaeda group operating in -- in -- in somalia, rather, drawing recruits from the united states. you've got al qaeda groups working in the north of africa. so you can wrap them up in pakistan, but they're elsewhere, too, ali. >> nic robertson, paul, thanks very much. we'll continue this conversation in the next hour. when we come back we're off to michigan where a student body president is learning a tough lesson in sexual politics.

this story is fascinating. the assistant attorney general versus the student body president. not a court case, however it may end up that way, but in reverse. hold on. i'm getting ahead of myself. andrew is an assistant attorney general in michigan making it his mission to oppose, putting it mildly, oppose the elected president the student assembly at the university of michiganian arbor. let me say that again.

a top official in a government office in charge of enforcing state laws undertaking a personal campaign, one that borders on a vendetta against a college student. a student who hasn't broken any laws nor accused of suspected of breaking laws. chris armstrong's defense to "andrew's an flamer to blog, is advancing a radical homosexual agenda." his words. chris isn't doing interviews and considering legal options but sherval had no problem last night on "a.c. 360." here a chunk of his interview with my colleague anderson cooper. >> basically if you've been involved in political campaigns before you know all sorts of stuff happens, and this is just another tactic bringing awareness to what chris really stands for. >> this is not some national

figure. this is a guy running a student council. >> well, anderson, as a private citizen and as a university of michigan alum, i care because this is my university, and i wasn't the only first person to criticize chris. in fact, long before i started the blog a couple of weeks before that the alliance defense fund of well-known legal christian foundation, put out an alert about chris. so i'm not the only person that has criticized chris and not the first person to criticize chris. >> but you are the only person running this blog which is putting nazi swastikas on this guy. you're a grown adult. sdp that seem appropriate to you? >> like i said, this is a political campaign, nothing personal against chris. >> what do you mean, nothing personal. you're outside his house, videotaping his house. shouting him down at public events, calling him satan the representative on the student council, attacking his parents, his friends' parents. i mean, you can't say it's not personal.

>> well, chris and any political campaign, you have to raise awareness and issues, and that's one way of doing it, is by protesting. >> okay. so andrew call it is a political campaign. what does andrew's boss think of all this? mike cox, michigan's attorney general and unsuccessful candidate for the gop nomination for governor. in a statement to cnn he says i quote, his personal opinions are his and his oh loan and do not reflect the views of the michigan department's attorney general. his lack of judgment outside the office are clear. what now? first amendment right. apparently he does. we have slander laws, and cyber bullying and then politic. joining me to help sort this out, cnn senior legal analyst jeff toobin. address that last point. first of all, it just doesn't seem fair or good, but put that aside. what do the laws say about this?

andrew says he's got the right to say what they wants to say. where does that interfere with this subject, armstrong's right to not have somebody have this smear campaign against him? >> two issues here, ali. the first is that andrew certainly has the right to engage in political speech under the first amendment. he does not have the right to be an assistant attorney general. there is a long line of supreme court cases that says, if you work for the government, you give up certain first amendment rights, and you can lose your job. if you express them in such a way that may be legal but may be offensive in some way. the real question here is, what is mike cox going to do about thises? because for mike cox to say, well, my subordinate has a first amendment right and there's nothing i can do about it, that is not true, and the question is

whether this hateful speech will allow -- will continue to be allowed while the taxpayers are paying this guy's salary. >> you know, andrew trying to make a point this is him on his own, and that he's got a legitimate argument. it's not just -- he doesn't think it's hate speech. let me play you a little more of andrew, the assistant attorney general of michigan on talking to anderson cooper last night about whether this is his job or not. >> i am doing this as a private citizen off work time, as university of michigan alum. we're quibbling over tactics, not substance. the substance of the matter is, anderson, chris armstrong is a radical homosexual activist who got elected partly funded by the gay and lesbian victory fund to promote a very deeply r5diccal agenda at the university of michigan, and he wraunts to do that by -- >> his biggest issue was extending the hours ever the cafeteria and low aring tuition as well as gender housing

issues. >> that's not correct. no, that's not correct. anderson, his biggest issue is gender neutral housing. we're talking about anybody, any man or woman, wanting to choose to live together. that's a radical redefinition of gender norms. >> let me ask you this, jeff, does that change the matter? if he can say there's actually something of substance he's trying to discuss that has something to do with armstrong's sexuality does that change the fact that what he's doing might be deemed hateful? >> not necessarily. i mean, we start to get into areas here where lawyers certainly will disagree. but if you are putting swastikas on people's faces, if you are disparaging people at the level that he is with this college student, i think mike cox would be well with his right as attorney general for dismissi

dismissing -- dismissing andrew from his job. the harder question is, does he have any -- sorry. does armstrong, the student, have any right to sue shirrval for her hasment? cyber bullying as you said? i don't know. i don't think the laws are entirely clear on that. it's my understanding armstrong obtain add lawyer and is looking into that possibility. it's wise to look into it, but i don't think there's a clear answer to whether there would be a legal remedy for armstrong at this point. >> remarkable story none the less. good to talk to you, jeff toobin, cnn senior legal analyst. listen, a census report says only one state and one metro city's income went up last year. the people in that city, by the way. what are they doing right and what's everybody else doing wrong? we'll find out on the other side of this.

here's a treat for us. time for "your $$$$$." normally it's christine. today, josh levs. we love josh, the explainer. something that caught my attention, talking about new numbers in the census. i posted this on twitter. only one state and one city saw personal income, household income, rise, in the last year. >> isn't that wild? the whole country, only one state. start with the state. look at this. this information came out yesterday. down to 34 states. flat everywhere else except one state. that one state where income went up, north dakota. does that surprise you? >> doesn't, only because that string of states, north dakota, south dakota, mountain states down from there, have done well over the last few years. lower unemployment, seem to ve good diversity of industry,

survived bert that most. >> even in that area, flat in general. this one, north dakota, 5%. actually john king was out there, talked with people why are things getting better. here's what one of them said. >> because of the industry here, are you shielded from some of the national dynamics sometimes? >> certainly an economy here is more flungsed by agriculture than any other single source, while there is manufacturing here, it's not to the extent of a michigan or an ohio, and agriculture continues to roll on. >> that's part of it. agriculture. also oil. fishing and hunting. a lot of these sindustries weather the storm. much steadier. >> now, the one city that has increased nowhere near north dakota. >> no. our people took a look at biggest metro areas. 52 of them. incomes down in 51 of them. >> wow. >> and it's -- >> slightly up in one. >> slightly up in one. san antonio, texas. up half of one percent.

down everywhere else, what's san antonio doing right? something we're looking at. behind san antonio, not getting the big booms out there, then again, not hit by some of the same busts as well. we talk about diversifying their economy. right? managed to have a lot of tourism and biological services, military there. we've seen the costs have stayed low. with this economy, a bunch of jobs available in the san antonio area. people have been moving in. wanting the cheaper goods while they're there. it's been attractive. that's kept this economy moving while hurting everywhere else. >> household median income? >> end on this. highest median income. >> income, means half of everybody earns more, half less. >> the highest of any city in the country. washington, d.c. $85,000. met though area, suburb, maryland, virginia. we're seeing the highest of any major city in the country, making the most money. the d.c. general area. >> $85,000.

interesting stuff. thanks, josh. you do money stuff with us, like that. tune into "your $$$$$" saturdays and sunday 1:00 and 3:00 p.m. eastern. blueberries, sweet potatoes, salmon, told over and over again we should eat them. why are these super foods so super? guess what, "paging dr. gupta" coming back with a special etocracy report right after this. ♪ [ male announcer ] at ge capital, we're out there every day with clients like jetblue -- financing their fleet, sharing our expertise, and working with people who are changing the face of business in america.

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personal pricing now on brakes. tell us what you want to pay. we do our best to make that work. deal! my money. my choice. my meineke. let me bring up to speed with the top stories we're following now at cnn. europe is said to be a prime targets of al qaeda linked terrorists according to a german citizen captured in afghanistan. german authorities say he attended the same hamburg mosque as one of the 9/11 hijackers and ran in the same circles. still both they and u.s.

officials say there's no evidence of an imminent attack in europe or the united states. former president jimmy carter still recuperating in a cleveland hospital. he'll stay there overnight, admitted yesterday having stomach pains en route to the city for a book signing. president carter turns 86 friday is said to be in good spirits. president obama held his third backyard chat in two days. in iowa talking about hard choices to power's country's economic growth. the president said republicans have not been honest about those choices. etocracy week on cnn. focusing on food and all the different ways our food choices affect our lives. this hour we're looking for fresh info on the so-called super foods. not just what they are but how they actually make you healthier. time to hit the market with chief medical correspondent my friend dr. sanjay gupta. >> reporter: you've probably seen the lists. super foods. the ten foods you should eat every single day. what is it about super foods?

what makes them so super? can they protect you? will they prevent you in some way from getting sick? let's take a look. come on. hi. >> hi, how are you? >> reporter: thanks for meeting us. >> thank you for having me. >> reporter: hanging out by the fruit, the berries. if you had to pick one fruit out, what is the ideal super food and why? >> blueberries are definitely the ideal super food, an it's because of their dark, rich color. that just means it's got a lot more anti-oxidants in it and great for memory and my health and help lower cholesterol. >> reporter: definitely berries on the super list for food. leafy greens we talk about all the time. what about leafy greens? >> the dark green color, again, a lot of nutrients in it. a great source of calcium. and fiber. >> reporter: a lot of foods are good for you. what make as food super? >> nutrient dense food, doing a lot more for you with less

calories expended. >> reporter: okay. erase some of my other bad eating habits? >> if you start replacing some of those bad eating habits with nor fruits and vegetables it can help. if you're going to load it down with other unhealthy foods, probably not the best choice. at least you've got them on the plate. >> reporter: can these foods act like medicines in the sense they can decrease inflammation, your cholesterol, things like that? >> some foods can do that, but it's part of our lifestyle as well. >> reporter: sweet potatoes are on your list. >> yes. they're great. the center for science and the public interests calls this one of the healthiest you can eat. packed with nutrients. deep orange color, vitamin a, great for eyes. vitamin e for skin. >> reporter: fish is i know very much on your list. >> the fatty cold water fish that have mega 3 fatty acids, good healthy fat helps fight inflammation. salmon, halibut, mackerel, tuna, sardines and herring, all great

fish a lot a lot of mega 3s in them. >> reporter: hearing all that, you might think great but i don't have a market like this in my backyard. a lot of people don't. you can get a lot of these foodses froze and canned. eat the super foods with a healthy diet in general. every now and then, you may get a little bit of exercise. back to you. >> all right. sanjay. our special series continues online. head to cnn.com/etocracy for all kinds of stories from soup to nuts and beyond, and a little video special of what i like to eat. a section called five and five. a blog. check it out. major strikes causing disruptions across europe now. workers voicing anger over proposed government budget cuts. we're going globe trekking right after this. after using rogaine for a while, i went to my stylist and she said hair was growing back... i was like, yes, this works...

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as the big wall says behind me, time to go globe trekking we do every day. strikes causing major disruptions across europe today. it's a call to action for workers who are protesting proposed government spending cuts. some of the biggest demonstrations taking place in spain and belgium. an estimated 100,000 people took to the streets in brussels in spain unions called for general strikes shutting down general transportation. several european governments are facing crippling budget failures and want to cut wages an pensions as part of the plan to get out of the hole. in haiti, no permanent place

to live nine months after the deadly earthquake struck that country. now we're hearing reports more than $1 billion promised by the u.s. government for reconstruction still hasn't been sent. it's tied up in congress with no plan approved on how to actually spend it. the money would be used to remove the millions of pounds of rubble and build permanent homes. millions of dollars pledged by other countries also haven't arrived. let's be clear. the u.s. already spent more than a billion dollars on humanitarian aid building shelters getting up health care and rehabilitation services and food. north korea seems to be planning for the postkim jong-il years. ruling party wrapped up a rare meeting of delegates. the last one was more than 40 years ago. the 68-year-old lieder re-elected general secretary of the party. no surprise. the ascension of his youngest son made the most news. kim jong un promoted to four-star general named vice chairman of the central commission and appointed to the central committee setting him up to follow his father as leader

of north korea. his grandfather, kim il-sung led north korea until pe died in 1984. and eddie long speaking out. >> while the media and press and the rest of the people around the city and country looking at us, how can a grown man let another man touch him, you have to understand, this man manipulated us from childhood. this was our father and we loved him. >> i cannot get the sound of his voice out of my head. and i cannot forget the smell of his cologne. and i cannot forget the way that he made me cry many nights when i drove in his cars ob it's way home, not able to take enough showers to wipe the smell of him off of my body. >> bishop eddie long denies the allegations and says he will fight back. his attorney says the case is being unfairly tried in the media. okay. the age-old question, what's for din jer a high-tech kitchen

counter to answer that question. we'll look under the surface straight ahead.

in 2008 i quit venture capital to follow my passion for food. i saw a gap in the market for a fresh culinary brand and launched behindtheburner.com. we create and broadcast content and then distribute it across tv, the web, and via mobile. i even use the web to get paid. with acceptpay from american express open, we now invoice advertisers and receive payments digitally. and i get paid on average three weeks faster. booming is never looking for a check in the mail. because it's already in my email. into revolutionary performance.

one word makes the difference between defining the mission and accomplishing the mission. one word makes the difference in defending our nation and the cause of freedom. how... is the word that makes all the difference. this edge of discovery stuff is candy to me. i'll show you something cool. a kitchen counter that can actually identify your food and tell you how to cook it. i need one of these. it's a smart surface an it's on the edge of discovery. here is gary tuchman. >> reporter: researchers and intel labs in seattle are cooking up something new.

3d technology that turns your kitchen counter into an interactive touch screen surface. it's called oasis. >> the oasis system using cameras to turn on everyday work space into an intelligent space where objects that come in get recognized and give you access to digital information. >> reporter: just put an item on the counter, a camera and computer work together to identify it. >> there's nothing special about the objects we're using. no bar codes or special tags on these. >> reporter: then projector creates a display at your fingertips. put two items together, and recipe suggestions are giving, all appearing right on the countertop. when finished store what you've learned in a virtual drawer. researchers are also taking oasis out of the kitchen to see what else it can do exciting to take this unit and drop it down

in a million different environments and see what happens. >> reporter: chess, anyone? gary tuchman, cnn. >> okay. let me bring you up to speed with some of the top stories we're following here at cnn. tropical storm nicole is now churning in the caribbean threatening cuba and the cayman islands approaching south florida where flood watches and warnings are now in effect. forecasters are not sure if the storm will make landfall or skirt. either way, at least eight inches of rain are possible in areas. support for the war in afghanistan keeps on slipping. we'll have the results of a new cnn opinion research corporation poll that says nearly six in ten americans surveyed now oppose the war. 44% of those surveyed believe the war is going well. down 11 points from march. this story just in from capitol hill. house majority leader steny hoyer says there will not about vote on extending the bush era tax cuts until after the midterm elections. president obama for one campaigned against extending tax cuts for the wealthy, but

democrats who are facing angry voters don't want to risk raising taxes on anybody. congress does nothing, the tax cuts will expire for everybody by the end of the year. the way you surf the web is changing drastically. i know you know that already, but imagine combining your typical web browser with the technology used in google earth? the details, this is fascinating. you've got to stay for this one. going to the bathroom or going for more coffee, forget it. something big coming for you after the break.

okay. i like to think that all of you watch me the entire show every day. i know that's not true. i know some of you come in and visit. you may not know every day i do something called "the big i" stands for idea. things that changed the world and an explanation of how you can take part in that, how you can take advantage of it maybe profit from it. i have a great one today. this is actually something that i think is going to come in handy. these two gentlemen with me are from georgia tech. and you've got in your hand, alex a phone. that's an iphone, like a fourth generation iphone? >> yes. >> this is not available to the public just yet. can you imagine taking a phone that has a camera, pointing it

at something and having information about that something that you're pointing it at actually pop up on your screen. a form of augmented reality. blair mcentire, associate professor at georgia tech. blair, talk to me about augmentative reality. >> the idea of putting information about the world around you. in the case of smartphones we take the video from the camera and feed it in, add graphics. you get a feel like you're looking through the phone at this world that's a mixture of video from the camera and information. >> a combination basically. taking the video using this technology we talk about. alex is doing it now. pointing this video around our studio now. we plugged this iphone, a video output so you can see it. as you go by things it's telling you what they are. this is a -- this is how this would work. >> yes. >> the cube. >> our weather coupe they're looking at over there. >> alex, do you want to say anything about the demo? >> what i want to say is that this content here is regular

content from the web, and it's just set on my web server in contrast to other techniques where you have to really build an application and deliver it. this stuff is created same way we create content on the web. >> give me an example. i'm outside. that ali, my great floor director you saw for a second. what you do is, you'll be looking at something and it would combine this gps technology, same sort of thing that goes into google earth. an image you've taken. how is this working? >> similar students went outside centennial park. >> right across the road. this is the cnn building, right. created a demo of what a tourist might see in visiting atlanta. the content, information about the building, the places around centennial park. >> right. >> all of this information lives on a web server. >> the idea is what? looking at -- you've got the camera up looking at the cnn building. what is it likely to tell you? >> it depends what you want to

put. georgia tech printed this, augment the reality browser using all the information of the current web except you say modify your server to send down whatever you want. cnn, send down the nearby i report. >> tell me what. we're dancing around. had when am i getting, sound, interactive consent, like on the web. bits of html like the web browser put out in the world. >> kbicombining that with gps t nothing. >> google earth using k mcht l. we basically take little bits of html, in this case tweets are formatted from twitter and encapsulate them and describing where things are on the earth. >> right. >> place marks. >> what does the twitter stuff tell me? >> another example how you can take, say, other consent. tweets, in your server, reformat

it how you want, send it down. we see a bunch of tweets nearby and the consent of one. we're working on more advanced kinds of ways to use this. in this example we're working on, trying to integrate with web services, for example, maybe you know this person, you could click to call them when you see a tweet by them. >> i see. okay. so bottom line is you are integrating the visual with data? >> yes. anything you could imagine putting on the web in 2d, if appropriate, you can put it around you. so maybe when you're looking at a detailed bit of text, just want to look tat on a screen. something el vent to you, me or a building we're looking at, we would want to put it on, maybe by that building. >> theoretically, i like architecture. look at the building through my phone and i format it to give me information on architecture. it will tell me that's such and such a building. whatever i would get on the internet? >> right. a website augmented with the necessary technology to feed this information town. you love architecture, go there,

look around, see information about the building around you. and it's up a to the people at the architectural society to create their web server. >> how does that work? this depends on people participating? would it be one app on my phone? >> exactly. argone is an app, a free app we're going to have available in the next few weeks, and once you have it on your phone it's just like a browser. you can type in url, www.cnn.com. if cnn enabled their web server to understand it's argone calling, they can feed down information like this. >> i see. >> right? so -- >> very interesting. you can build anything into this. the idea, you now have taken your ability to capture video or an image and combine it with all the data available out there pretty much? >> right. all kinds of little apps available on the iphone. >> this could be, a guide around the city. >> yes. for me right now the big question is how do we start understanding what arl is good for? we need to get all of these people with great ideas and can

create things and be able to get them experimenting, which we can do with this. building apps is hard. >> mark, you look at this. alex, point your camera at me. i'm going to tell viewers something here. if you want more information on this, very cool. you know, no information entered on me now. go to my blog, to my blog cnn.. i'll have more and you can link to it and find out more. blair, thanks very much. alex hill, thanks very much. i'll talk about politics when i come back. the nevada senate race is heating up. getting stuck month. sweat every day to make an honest buck...month. and if you're gonna try and do this in anything other than a chevy... well, good luck...month. great deals on the complete family of chevy trucks all backed for a hundred thousand miles. it's truck month. during truck month, use your all-star edition discount for a total value of five thousand dollars on silverado.

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time now for a cnn equals politics -- why do i say that wrong? cnn politics point. cnn senior editor mark preston, deputy political editor paul steinhauser. you guys get me tongue-tied. >> i think you failed that test but we're going to give you a second shot, no doubt about it. ali, here's a question for you. is sharron going hollywood? we know she's a senate nominee in nevada taking on harry reid and backed a big time by the tea party movement. guess what, this saturday dennis miller, the radio talk show host, comedian and entertainer will be in vegas hosting a main event at a fund-raiser for sharron angle. miller has supported republicans a lot including in the last decade john mccain. but catch this. last week pat boone, another conservative entertainer was

hosting a fund-raiser for angle and this friday she's going to los angeles to team up with a lot of conservatives in the entertainment business for a fund-raiser. is she going hollywood? we'll see. check this out. zoom in here to the cnn political ticker. west virginia. if the republicans win back the senate, one of the places may be west virginia. there is a ballot going on there right now for the seat for the late robert byrd. he had that seat in democratic hands over 50 years but died earlier this year. there was a special election and right now the two candidates are heating up today with brand new attack ads, each after each other. joe manchin, popular two-term democratic governor and john racy getting dirty down in west virginia. we'll keep an eye on that race. that's what i got. mark, what have you got? >> file this under your past always catches up to you. we're waiting for the past to catch up to you which should be shortly. in florida a competitive senate race. there's a new ad by the democrat kendrick meek.

he's taking a shot at charlie crist, the former republican governor who has turned independent. charlie crist is trying to reach out to democratic voters. he thinks that could help him in his path to victory in november. this new ad strings together a bunch of different statements charlie crist has made touting coffin tiv ties. it's so popular that the republican nominee mark yoe rubio is shopping it around. a very competitive race down in florida. new poll numbers and new cnn corporation research poll numbers out in just a few hours. don't forget on october 24th, down in florida on "state of the union," candy crowley will debate a 3-way debate between the three candidates. >> all right, guys. i know it's cnn equals politics. we know you have the political ticker but you're sitting at a desk cnn.com. it's confusing. can i just say my guys paul and mark have an update for us? >> does that work for you? >> sure. it's us.

>> it's a good thing it's a shaipd shaped show because we'll redo the intro and edit it in. stay with cnn for complete coverage of the key races and issues heading into critical midterm elections. your next update from those guys and their team is just an hour away. disco could be getting its due at the rock and roll hall of fame. finally. nobody gave it no respect. the new list of nominees is out. ♪ [ upbeat instrumental ]

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the list is out for the rock and roll hall of fame. the nominees for induction in

2011. there's a name here for pretty much any fan from neil diamond to alice cooper, bon jovi to ll cool j. these are some of the 15 nominees they'll pick from. to be considered you have to have put out a record at least 25 years ago. the 2010 inductees included abba, genesis, the stooges and jimmy clift. since it was formed n. 1983 they've honored a total of 605 people, some more than once. eric clapton has been inducted three times as a solo act, with the yard birds and with cream. well, the internet and cnn newsroom are abuzz this afternoon after the britney spears edition of "glee!" last night. one of the characters on the fox show is named brittney s. pierce. last night they paid homage to britney spears. her dialogue is called sheer genius. a character on the show expertly combined several different music videos from the real ms. spears

into one laughing gas induced fantasy. the dentist was played by john stamos. she appeared several times last night as well, once in a video spoof as madonna talking about good smelling breath and again as a cheerleader. that's what we've got for that. it's a new rundown, a new hour. let me bring you what we've got. if you're looking to change your diet or eat healthier, we have revolutionary solutions. if you are what you eat you'll never be the same again. tony danza has a new role in the real world. been learning a tough lesson on how hard it is to be a teacher. he joins me live this hour to talk about it. last hour we wrought you the story of an openly gay student the target of an anti-gay internet campaign. the person waging the campaign is an assistant state attorney general. i have some things to say about this in my "xyz." a major terror plot uncovered in europe triggering concern around the world.

a german counterterrorist official says that u.s. bank, stock exchanges and other economic institutions were the targets. at the same time developments on the battlefield in afghanistan and pakistan that are apparently linked to the plot. here are key points. authorities say a german citizen of afghan deedee scent and spelled out the terror plan and said it would be like the mumbai incident two years ago. osama bin laden apparently approved the plan. so far no word if the threats were also against the united states. now to the war zone in afghanistan and pakistan. nato says an air strike killed a top al qaeda commander in northern afghanistan along the border with pakistan. the u.s. recently increased the don attacks in pakistan. drone targets in pakistan include taliban and al qaeda forces and militants linked to al qaeda. and the taliban have been denying claims made by top u.s.

commander in afghanistan general david petraeus that the taliban was in contact with the government about possible peace talks. it sounds complicated and it is. we've got it covered on several fronts. ivan watson is in kabul, afghanistan. fred pleitgan. and let's start in kabul with ivan watson. ivan, bring us up to speed on what we know. >> reporter: let's see. i just lost audio connection, ali. if i understood you correctly, what took place here was an air strike. an air strike according to nato and isaf spokesmen that took place saturday in a turbulent corner of eastern afghanistan in kunar province. u.s. military spokesmen have said a senior al qaeda operative was killed by the name of

abdullah umar cue refreshy. they say he was a saudi and involved in struggling across foreign fighters into afghan terror. they named a second victim of the abuf at yaf, kuwaiti, a kuwaiti explosives expert. we checked with afghan officials and security on the ground in that province and they say at least two arabs were killed in a strike on saturday. we talked to the taliban. they will not confirm or deny whether or not these two arabs that were named were killed. what's interesting here, ali, is that this took place in the bloody korengal, valley where u.s. forces struggled to gain control of it and finally retreated last spring after losing 40 american lives. >> we're going to talk a little about the effect of the killing

of those two taliban commanders. let's go to fred . these drone attacks have been increasing in pakistan. what's behind that? >> increasing in a magsive way. we've counted 20 drone attacks into pack stack thkistan this m. one of the reasons is that al qaeda and taliban operatives are moving from pakistan into afghanistan. it's long been a thorn for the u.s. to see that these operatives have somewhat of a safe haven in various areas here in pakistan especially in north waziristan. the u.s. military, u.s. government has been telling pakistan to send its army into those areas to crack down on those militants. so far that's happened to a certain extent but not really in a are the of areas. so what we're seeing is the u.s. taking matters into its own hands. and of course as more and more

american troops get on the ground that mission is more and more urgent because obviously these people are a massive threat to u.s. soldiers in afghanistan. >> then there's that complicated threat of terrorism which brings us to the other part of the story. let's go to nic robertson in abby dabby. . >> reporter: according to german counterterrorism officials, ahmad sidiqi was picked up in kabul in july and transferred to u.s. custody and they say he began to talk a lot and talk about the mumbai style plot to attack different cities in europe, in great britain and france and germany. being gunmen with explosives going into hotels or other similar soft targets where they could shoot people up. that has caused, according to a u.s. counterterrorism, u.s. intelligence officials, has caused an uptick in drone strikes in pakistan targeting

these would-be attackers. what we understand from british officials and german officials is that there was no immediate threat -- there is no immediate threat in britain or in germany at this time. that's because it appears that the information that sidiqi has provided has been given while there's been enough time, sort of relatetime intelligence if you will while many operatives planning this were in the pakistani border type regions which is where he had gone to a training camp. sidiqi is from hamburg, germany and left in 2009 with a group of other individuals to go to these terror training camps in the afghan border region. one of the significant things we're learning about sittdiqi attended the same mosque that muhammed atta, the lead 9/11 hijacker attended and had a group of people around him in

2000. we're learning from the same sources that sidiqi had connections with muhammed atta at that time. so his sort of radical tendencies, if you will, go back quite a long way. but now it appears he's given intelligence officials a lot of information allowing them to learn a lot about these plans and about the people behind those plans. nic robertson, cnn, abu dhabi, the united arab emirates. crunkshank is live in london. give us an idea of the structure of al qaeda today. when we hear top commanders have been killed, is there somebody in place to replace them? or does that matter less today where al qaeda operates in cells around the world. what's your sense of how big an accomplishment this is? >> the true headquarters of al qaeda is still in pakistan and it's from pakistan it's being hatched showing al qaeda is resilient and able to pressure the west.

this is a plot we saw last september. they've been able to decentralize the operations in the tribal areas of pakistan to sort of avoid some of these drone strikes which allowed them the capability to still plot against the west. there's been no ground offensive yet by pakistani troops. into north waziristan, the real trouble tribal areas. this seems to be a major plot which has been thwarted coming out of pakistan. al qaeda central still seems to have quite a lot of resilience, ali. >> what is the -- what's the end game here? to continue to kill commanders of al qaeda or to deal with the fact that it does have these tentacles, cells that can operate independent of -- seemingly independent of connection to the central al qaeda govern annals? . >> it's both. it's both an ideological strug the against al qaeda the wider movement but also intelligence services are trying to target

specific al qaeda commanders, specific al qaeda operatives. the warring thing here of course is it doesn't take too many to launch big terrorist strikes. we saw that on 9/11 and saw it here in london in 2005. a few people can get through sometimes. and that's what keeps counterterrorism services awake at night. but this does seem to be a big success for western counter terrorism here. >> do you think they still have the capability to conduct something of the scale of 9/11? >> 9/11 maybe now beyond their capability, but they certainly have the capability to launch a strike like they did here in london in 2005, a strike which could kill 50, 60 people, maybe more, in subways. but this sort of mumbai style attack is what the counterterrorism officials on both sides of the atlantic are talking about as being very problematic because they're concerned people can buy guns. think how easy it is to buy guns in the united states for

example. go and buy guns and launch attacks. that's causing concern. >> terrorism expert joining us from london. he is ready for primetime. he's wowed them on broadway. but can tony danza cut it on the toughest stage of all? i'm going to ask him myself. lindsey vonn, she stays tough! earlier, she had an all-over, achy cold. what's her advantage? it's speedy alka-seltzer. alka-seltzer plus. rushes relief for all-over, achy colds. the official cold medicine of the u.s. ski team. alka-seltzer plus.

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pleitgen. when people talk about fixing schools, they talk money. they talk class size and curriculum. it often comes back to teachers. we praise a few and slam a lot but i'm here to tell you teaching isn't easy. it's way tougher than, let's say, playing housekeeper in a 1980s sitcom.

listen. ♪ there is more to life than what you're living ♪ ♪ so take a chance >> that's tony danza in the long running comedy "who's the boss." you know you watched it. i watched it. my floor director said she watched it last night. his new project is light years from a sound stage. try a tenth grade classroom in philadelphia. >> what is your name? welcome. i'm mr. danza. look, first of all, let's see. what's your name? danny, let me show you something. i have these hand sanitizers at the door so the first thing you do when you come in just sanitize your hands. >> clean hands, smart minds or something like that. you can follow danza's experience as a sophomore english teacher on the new a&e show "teach." tony danza joins me live from our studios in new york. what an honor to have you here. thank you for being with us. >> my pleasure, ali. good to meet you as well too. i don't know how you follow all

this terrorism stuff with my teaching. this is worrying me. >> we put a lot into this show and teaching is something we talk about. education is something we talk about every day. for people who don't know, what is this project to you? because it was described as your toughest assignment. it's not a drama. >> no. it's -- we like to think of it as responsible reality. it's just an attempt -- it's something -- i went to school to be a teacher. it's been a -- you showed "who's the boss." at the ends of "who's the boss" i became a teacher so it's something that's been on my mind. you look at what's going on in the country. arne duncan, secretary of education said a kid drops out of high school in america every 11 seconds. i'm getting to be a little older. i'm closing in on 60. so i want to do something. i wanted to do something. and i was telling a friend of mine, which is one of the things i do i tell people so i can't back out. i told a friends of mine who was a tv producer. he said i could sell that idea

in 15 minutes. we got a chance to go to philadelphia. >> we talk about education every day and sometimes it's how well the kids are prepared or what kind of work their parents do with them or how much they get to eat or what the facilities are like at the school. but ultimately, so much of it comes back to teachers. for better or for worse. sometimes teachers feel we're slamming them and other times we're recognizing them. is this really a tough role for you? >> oh, it's really the hardest thing. arne duncan said the other day this may be the most important job in the country. and i'm thinking about it. the difference you can make. that one kid that says, hey, yeah, i get it. or the one kid that comes back and says if it weren't for you. we all have those teachers in our lives. it does come down to the teachers. we focus on the teacher doing a lot of talking about this. and i'm glad that the -- we happen to have the show coming out as the country is engaged in this conversation but we are

missing a couple of points. it's certainly important to get the greatest teachers in the school. and i think there are bad teachers. i think there are more discouraged teachers. if you look at the burnout rates, 30% after three years, 46% after five years. that's evidence that people are discouraged. the reason is because we have a culture that doesn't celebrate education and we have a lot of, i think -- not a lot of parents -- we have a lot of good parents but there are some parents who are not in the game, who are not telling their kids, hey, look, you have to go to school and make this count. we also need kids to be more motivated about it and understand it is their only way out of -- into some kind of sustainable life. >> so there is a role for kids. there's a role for parents to step up. there's a role for teachers to step up. there's obviously a role for government to step up. what about the rest of us who may not have a direct connection to this? you touched on something interesting. that is the respect, the cultural respect we offer teachers or don't offer them.

they aren't the highest paid in a society consider very important. do we not treat teachers as well as we should? >> think about this, ali. one of the things we talk about in education is you have to model things for kids. you have to show it to them. what are the model? they don't have a model for success. the teachers certainly aren't a model of success because they've heard the rhetoric. those that can do and those that can't teach and they heard that they don't make any money and hear the bad teachers. we've sort of propagated the thing that we don't want. we the kids to respect the teachers and we don't give the people respect. fred astaire said -- and i've been using it. we expect kids to learn manners without ever seeing them. i think we all have to chip in in this. and for me, this was like the road not taken and i got a chance with a lot of people put themselves on the line and their jobs on the line and let me have a chance to do this. i tried to be the best teacher i could possibly be, tried to give

the kids the tenths great english class that they deserved as ironic as it sounds that i was teaching it. listen, it gave me a tremendous amount of respect for what teachers go through and have to do. i'm actually going to try to write a book about it to fill in the blanks. i wish everything was on camera. the name of the book is "i would like to apologize to every teacher i've ever had: my year at northeast high." >> we will watch it. it's very timely and important message. as much as we on this show every day try to get to the bottom of some of the problems of public education, it's always important to remember we have to respect our teachers. good to see you. >> thank you for having me. you keep up the good work. >> tony danza. if you want to check in on what he's doing we'll post links to my blog. let me check in on top stories right now. europe is said to be a prime target of al qaeda-linked terrorists according to a german citizen captured in afghanistan. german authorities say he

attended the same hamburg mosque as one of the 9/11 hijackers and ran in the same circles. still they and u.s. officials say no evidence of imminent attack in europe or the united states. former president jimmy carter still recuperating in a cleveland hospital. he'll stay there overnight for observation. he was admitted yesterday after having stomach pains en route to the city for a book signing. president carter who turns 86 on friday is said to be in very good spirits. president obama holding more backyard chats. today he spoke to families in des moines, iowa, talking about hard choices that have got to be made to power the country's economic growth. the president said republicans haven't been honest about those choices. he's also holding a chat in richmond, virginia, today. a big mac versus a big salad. pretty obvious which one is good for you. what about a burger versus crispy chicken sandwich? we're going to tell you how to make a meal swap. our special eatocracy coverage. @

we've been talking is a lot about terrorism. i want to bring you this information just in. federal prosecutors say the man accused of planting a bob in new york times square planned to detonate a second one two weeks after that failed attack. that's according to documents filed in federal court today. he apparently told police he studied pedestrian volume in times square on live web cams in advance of the attack to maximize casualties when he conducted them. we'll get more information on that and i'll bring it to you. as you know it's eatocracy week on cnn. special coverage on food and the different ways food choices affect our lives. speaking of choices most of us could probably make better ones

day to day but sometimes it's hearter to know what's better nutritionally. i find myself up against that thinking i'm making a better choice than i am. you're back again. we liked him so much we brought him back. he developed an application that can help you cook or order your meal in realtime. the other day you were in here and we were talking about a way to make choices at restaurants. you're from georgia tech. >> that's correct. >> you sign up a restaurant here in atlanta where if you are looking for a low sodium diet it will tell you what's on the menu that's good for you or low fat. this is different. >> thank you so much for having me again. i think like you mentioned the last time that that particular aspect or that particular application was for the restaurant. this is for anybody on the internet, any of your viewers to check it out calls usablehealth.com. we want to make health care advice practical. a quick demo. if you went and created your own

profile you would be assigned to a particular guidelines which in my case is the ones for 2005. i can see the benefits of this guideline at any of these restaurant locations that i go to. >> that's kind of a profile, how you want to conduct yourself and your eating habits. >> right. and also evidence-based profile. it's taking an evidence-based medical profile and converting into real life. >> if i am diabetic or low sodium, i can set it up differently. >> if you mention you have a particular chronic disease it will assign you to a different profile. >> it tells you how you do at these places? >> right. literally two clicks of a button. if i want to follow the dietary guidelines for americans at subway what i usually get is the barbecue sandwich. what this will do for me is give me an actionable alternative at subway that actually is healthier for me than that

particular -- >> so it will always give you a net gain? if you get the barbecue sandwich foot long it will suggest an oatmeal raisin cookie and oven roasted chicken breast sandwich, six inch. but it will give you 17% fewer calories. >> absolutely. you can view the nutritional content of each of the choices on the website but what's interesting is you can say i don't want this particular option, this doesn't make sense to me and browse through a finite number of food swaps. when you like something and select it, you get a point. it's a built of a game. once you select it you have the option of coming back and reading reaating it. >> if i want a juicy burger and it wants me to eat saw dust i won't rate that very much. >> that's what we do with usable health is we want to give advice that's practical and realistic. a lot of times you go to a

physician such as myself or i tell you why don't you just eat salads the rest of your life. that's advice no one is follow. it's not just medical advice. it's also advice that makes sense. you know if i want i can go in and share this food swap on my social network. this propagates through the network about. >> i love this! can i use this now? >> absolutely. go to usablehealth.com and use it today. >> what does a skinny guy like you know about food? i like this stuff. this stuff is fantastic. the ceo of usable health, we'll link to it on my blog page. we have a drink in the studio that is 9,000 years old sort of. stand by. ♪

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okay. time now to go "off the radar." for some reason when the cat is away the mice will play. >> where is you been? >> i come back and now we're talking about booze "off the radar." >> what do you think we've been doing? >> you warmed me up for this last week because you had drinks under a microscope. >> i'm hiding. >> you have a big bottle -- >> hiding what we have. >> before we get to that beer it's the 200th anniversary of oktoberfest. >> 1810 the first oktoberfest. i want to start singing. >> have little lederhosen. >> no. >> maybe not. it's a family show. but 200th anniversary but hasn't been happening 200 years. >> they had problems like wars and things that got in the way and you couldn't really celebrate oktoberfest during the war. 177 times though since 1810. it was the marriage of crown

prince ludwig to princess theresa. >> have you ever been to an oktoberfest because they happen all over the world? >> only at the wild wing in marietta, georgia. >> quite a celebration. a lot of beer consumed. >> 6 million. they have 6 million visitors. that's a liter. that's a quart of beer. >> let's stay with the theme. you have a several thousand year old beer. >> 9,000 almost. you heard of dog fish. dog fish brewery. years ago they came upon and so did some researchers came upon vessels in china like old clay pots. >> old clay capsule. >> they scraped the bottom of the pot and said what is this? said it must be beer. they took it to researchers to do analyzing how can we make this again and they did.

this is it. there are 500 bottles in the world of this 9,000-year-old beer. now, no parts of the 9,000-year-old beer is in here. >> with the 9,000-year-old recipe. >> it has recreation painstaking by chinese archaeology inspired by neo liggettic dog fish brewing company. >> wlhat does it taste like? >> they're not going to let us open. they said it would taste nothing like beer that we know. >> is that right? this makes beer older than wine. >> when they found this they found this 9,000-year-old beer was the oldest alcoholic beverage ever found and this is a copy of it available for $12 at your local retailer. >> is that right? >> 12 bucks. >> only 500 bottles? >> better hurry. listen, this is what they said. you are a monster. that is a message from wuchblt men accused of -- one of the men

who is accusing atlanta bishop eddie long of abuse. he's speaking publicly about his relationship with the pastor. his words are hard to forget. f. the drive is done. so it's a day of games and two more pills. the games are over, her pain is back, that's two more pills. and when she's finally home, but hang on, just two aleve can keep back pain away all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is rachel, who chose aleve and two pills for a day free of pain. ♪ and get the all day pain relief of aleve in liquid gels. ♪ [ male announcer ] nature is unique... ...authentic... ...pure... and also delicious. ♪ like nature valley. granola bars made with crunchy oats and pure honey. because natural is not only good, it also tastes good.

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new information now on the bishop eddie long story. one of his accusers is speaking public will about the atlanta pastor. 23-year-old jamal paraist is a former employee at his baptist church and a personal sanity to long and one of the four who filed suit against long for allegedly coercing them into a sexual relationship. >> while the media and press and the people around the city and

country look at us like how can a grown man let another man touch him. he manipulated us from childhood. this was our father and we loved him. that man cannot look at me into the eye and say we did not live this pain. how you can tell that today church you cannot say it to our face. you are not a man. you are a monster. >> bishop long denied the allegations in the four lawsuits. during services the past sunday he told the congregation he was being attacked and was ready to fight back. today his attorney reacted saying the case is being unfairly tried in the media. this you have got to see. a conservative activist, one you have seen before, tries to lure my colleague, a cnn correspondent, into a compromising situation. but she didn't fall for it. she's going to tell us the bizarre story straight ahead.

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posing as a pimp and making undercover videos. you remember that? conservative activist james o'keefe is back at his pranks again. this time cnn was the target. let me remind you some of his antics. last year he and hannah giles dressed as a pimp and prostitute in a sting operation to uncover alleged wrongdoing at a.c.o.r.n. that advocated for low and middle income people and worked to register voters. they went to several offices and described the business arrangement and taped workers giving them advice on setting up a brothel and skirting the lau. it looks like the a.c.o.r.n. workers fell for the sting. but prosecutors in new york and california found in evidence of wrongdoing by a.c.o.r.n. and did find the videos had been heavily

edited. in o'keefe's next big splash he have taped associates entering the office of louisiana senator mary landrieu posing as telephone repairmen. he got arrested for that one and pleaded guilty of entering a federal office under false pretenses and is now on probation. so for more than six months cnn has worked on a documentary that follows a group of young conservative political activists. we wanted to learn more about their movement and message. frustrated with the mainstream media many use undercover cameras and social media to expose what they consider corruption but the project took a very strange turn when the cameras were almost turned on us. our special investigations unit correspondent any boudreau joins us with uncanny details of what happened to her. >> it started with a phone call from james o'keefe just like you said. he dressed up as a pimp in the a.c.o.r.n. videos. we had an upcoming shoot and he

was going to be part of that. he was not comfortable with cnn being there. so he called me and said that he wanted to meet with me alone. i was okay with that. reporters meet with sources all the time. and it wasn't an interview. it was just a meeting. he said i would meet with him and his colleague izzy santa. luckily when i left that so-called meeting, i had a flip cam with me and i was able to document what had just happened at that meeting. that's what you're about to see. >> reporter: when i pulled up to the property, izzy was waiting for me. and she said, i need to talk to you. can i get in the car? and i was like, okay. so i noticed that she had like a little bit of dirt on her face. her lip was shaking. she seemed really uncomfortable. and i asked her if she was okay. and the first thing that she basically said to me was, i'm not recording you. i'm not recording you. are you recording me? i was, no. and she says, i need to tell you something. and i said, okay, is everything

okay? you're making me nervous. she said, no, no. not everything -- everything is not okay. i am a moral person. i need to tell you something. well, what is about to happen? tell me what is going on. and she said you're about to be punked. izzy told me the plan was to bring me close to the dock and then ask me if i would consent to having my meeting with james recorded on an audio recorder. if i said yes, she would get me on the boat where james was waiting and where hidden video cameras was rolling. why is his goal to get me on the boat? she said because on the boat he's going to be there dressed up and he's going to have strawberries and champagne waiting for you. and he was going to hit on you the whole time. she said the sole purpose of the punk was to embarrass me and cnn. i went to the backyard to see the boat for myself and to try

to meet james. but he didn't get off the boat, so i walked back to my car. then right before i left, james walked up to me and explained that it would make him feel more comfortable if the so-called interview were recorded. that's just not something i'm comfortable with is to have this conversation recorded. plus, it's not an interview. i'm just here to try to address your concerns about this upcoming shoot but you ended up wanting me to come all the way out here. you said you were going to be at your office and instead you want me to come on some boat with you and you wanted to be recorded. those are ground rules you should have set over the phone. he said what are you ashamed of? that's when i said, all right, this is where the conversation ends. and i said to him it was a pleasure. >> we soon find out there was an elaborate 13-page document that outlines the plan to punk the

cnn. it's called cink caper document. the first part about how to trick cnn reporting a false story either about sarah palin or the tea party and then the plan was to give fox news a heads up that cnn was about to report a fake story so fox could then undercut cnn's credibility. that is a quote, undercut cnn's credibility. the second part was how to punk me by seducing me on his boat. it said it would be staged with sexual props, a blind fold, handcuffs, pornographic magazines and so much more. but just to be clear his colleague written and james is written as the activist and would have acted out the quote/unquote punk. he e-mailed and said that is not my work product. when it was sent to me i immediately found certain elements highly objectionable and inappropriate and did not consider them for one minute following it. but we would learn that does not appear to be true. we have a series of e-mails and

other documentation that we're told show his true intentions. all of that will be revealed in our documentary on saturday. >> so he got you out there on the pretext he was uncomfortable with the way he was portrayed -- >> he was nervous having cinl on set for a shoot that we were scheduled to be at and wanted to talk to us about that. i said, sure, i'll be happy to talk to you. i have face-to-face meetings with people all the time. i wasn't 100% comfortable going by myself. i would rather the producer come along with me and explained that. everyone knew where i was going. >> the documentary, he's just a part of it? >> he's just a part of it. it obviously took a very strange turn. but we documented a lot of young conservatives who are very passionate about their beliefs. whether you agree or you disagree, these people are excited about trying to make a positive change, from their

perspecti perspective. i hope people watching the documentary realize it's not all about this person. >> the one guy with strange techniques but you met a lot who are involved the way they should be. >> people will be able to judge it however they want to judge it. >> they tried to punk the wrong person. good thing you didn't get on the boat. >> i would never have gotten on the boat. >> you would have punched him in the nose. incredible story. president obama on the stump in iowa today. the latest bid to drum up support for fellow democrats. is it working? there he is. ed henry gives us his take when we come back.

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remember back in the old days when the tv programming would go off the screen and there would be a test pattern, whatever, showed up on your tv with all those colors. our good friend ed henry is obliging by providing one on his tie today. >> reporter: i was just about to compliment you on your vest, but forget it. >> if you told me that i wouldn't have made fun of your tie. actually quite tasteful. our senior white house correspondent. as i said earlier, i imagine that our viewers join us every day for two hours and watch it the whole time but sometimes they don't.

so i want to remind them that we come to you for the inside scoop on what is going on in the white house and with the president every day, the stakeout. and the president has been -- it's like he's trying to get some free food or something. he's been in people's backyards across the country the last two days. three backyards in two days? >> reporter: and it's to tie in with our eatocracy blog, i think. because we're going to have to get the president's five -- we're going to have to get him on the blog. he's getting used to them. and i think also maybe he's watching the stakeout because last week we were raising the question has the president lost his mojo. last night i think he was sending a signal maybe to critics that he's still got the mojo and can get momentum going in november getting 26,000 at this rally in madison mostly college students and trying to show, look, they are being up front about saying they are trying to rally a young democrat in particular. they're worried there are a lot

of young people who turned out maybe for the first time in 2008, supported president obama then but frankly don't care about the midterm elections and don't see a lot at stakes for them. he's trying to lay that case out for them. maybe that will give democrats some momentum but it's hard to see whether it will matter in the races like in wisconsin where despite the president getting a big crowd are the same people going to show up for russ feingold westbound the democratic senator facing a challenge from robinson down six points based on some of the polls. still early to tell. still a few weeks to see whether any of this president's momentum translates into democratic victories. >> we're going to get to talk to of about it every day. ed henry our senior white house correspondent. i actually do like that tie i have to tell you. i was just making fun of you. another option for delaware, another story we've been covering a lot, mike castle defeated in the republican primary. he's considering to get back into the race to take on

christine o'donnell again. your cnnpolitics.com update is next. than hope. it is the promise that compels us to make the journey from wonder to discovery. the science of chemistry, our guide. the human element, our conscience. and to make this journey, we have become the new order of hunters and gatherers. finding answers in the elements. and a way forward illuminated by hope.

. it is time for a cnnpolitics.com update. gloria borger at the cnnpolitics.com desk in washington, d.c. welcome back. great to see you, gloria. what do you have crossing the ticker? >> great to see you. we should expect more news out of delaware today. congressman mike castle just told dana bash he's going to make his decision he said probably today. he's facing a deadline tomorrow on whether or not he's going to mount a run-in candidacy in the state of delaware but also said in the past he's always leaned towards not doing it. so we're going to see if he changes his mind. obviously, the democrat is running ahead of christine o'donnell in that state. lots of folks felt moderate republican castle would have had a better shot at getting joe biden's seat so we're all sort

of on pins and needles to see what he's going to do. on the campaign trail there's someone else out there and i'm not talking about barack obama. i am talking about former president bill clinton. word today is that he's heading out west. the west is going to be a real challenge for democrats in 2010. they did very well in the west in 2008, but that has changed and so bill clinton is going out there for incumbent patty murray on october 8th. he remains, bill clinton, really popular, very much in demand. his popularity rating, according to the recent "wall street journal" poll is at 55%. that's more than ten points higher than the current president. that's why you're going to see him out on the trail a lot. last but not least -- and you'll be interested on this, ali -- the worst kept secret in washington is now confirmed by our congressional team led by dana that there is not going to

be any tax cut vote in the house this year. they're trying to put a good face on it. they're trying to say they couldn't do it because the republicans were going to hold the middle class tax cut extensions hostage to extending the tax cuts for the wealthy but the twruth ruth of the matter i didn't have the votes. >> thank you so much for joining us. gloria borger, cnn political analyst. stay with cnn for complete coverage on the key races and issues into the next election. the next update just an hour away. an assistant state attorney general has a personal campaign against an openly gay university student. ♪

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time now for the "xyz." last spring the university of michigan student body elected chris armstrong to be its student assembly president. that he is openly gay didn't seem to matter to michigan students but deeply offended a michigan alumnus who set up a blog dedicated to attacking armstrong over what he called his radical homosexual agenda. it's the internet age and anybody can say anything. you can debate the parameters but it is what it is. what gives me pause is the name and position of the hateful blogger. an assistant attorney general for the state of michigan. he's a public official with a mandate to uphold the law. in his blog he calls armstrong's satan -- he calls armstrong

satan's representative on the student assembly and posted a picture of armstrong with resign written all over his face and calls him the student a racist elitist liar. his boss, attorney general mike cox are his opinions alone and do not reflect the opinions of the attorney general's office but cox concedes that his immaturity and lack of judgment outside the office are clear. he defends himself by saying he writes his blog postings during off hours separate from his work. he insists he's a christian citizen exercises first amendment rights but of all people, the prosecutor, the enforcer should know his campaign to smear armstrong could land him in court for harassment or libel or both and whether michigan's attorney general admits it or not expressions like these even if constitution elle protected reflect poorly on a state ofls charged with protecting all of its citizens. that's it for me. time now for my friend, rick and